The Value of Mirrors

Looked in a mirror lately? Probably so. We have this habit of doing it pretty much every morning to start off our day. Even if we don't intend to, when we walk by a mirror we glance over to see how everything is looking. At restaurants you see ladies whip out their little compact mirrors to check for green stuff hanging from their teeth and that the lipstick is OK. Guys stare at their visages while they wash their hands at the sink, mostly thinking to themselves "Man, is my wife/girlfriend lucky to be hanging out with someone as handsome as me!"

Some mornings I get up, look in the mirror and groan. I think "Dude, you got to lay off the chocolate and start moving around a little more. There is more of you to love but it ain't pretty." Other mornings I look in that mirror and think "Hey...looking good this morning! What a beautiful day!" (Yeah, so, I'm vain. As if you aren't too.)

But what about this scenario. You go through your day, just like any other day and then you see that reflection in the mirror and you say to yourself "Yikes! How many people have I been around today and nobody bothered to tell me that I have this very unfashionable rooster tail sticking out of my hair!" You really don't look all that good but nobody told you. Or you stay away from the mirror so long that you have forgotten who you are and, perhaps you are pleasantly surprised when reminded.

OK - here's the point. Mirrors remind us who we are, what we look like, what is good, what is bad. Mirrors don't lie, they just reflect reality. Mirrors are pretty important.

Here is the Spiritual Point: Being with other followers of Jesus where we are worshipping and learning together (commonly referred to as "Church") is our spiritual mirror. When we participate in community we get reminded about the good, bad and ugly in our lives. We get reminded of just how important we are to God and his tremendous love for us. We get reminded of how, in Christ, we are new people and not controlled by our passions but by God's Holy Spirit. We are also reminded of the blemishes and imperfections that need the touch of God in our lives. We get convicted of our sin (yeah, no one likes the word but it is reality) and hopefully, we get motivated to pursue God more fully.

The sad reality of not looking in a mirror is that we can get pretty ugly pretty fast and not even realize it. When we stay away from church we lose our awareness of reality. Just because we don't like what we see is no reason to not look in the mirror. In fact, it is all the more reason to stare intently in that mirror and ask the God who loves you so deeply to bring the needed change to make you beautiful.